Conestoga College, Monday May 13, 1985.
Business gets award with thanks by students of classes 3B01 and 3B02. Among the many people in
by David Gonczol Scholarship presentations were made in the Management Studies-Business Administration program on May 1. Representatives from The Canadian Institute of Management (C.I.M.), the Association of Systems Managers (A.S.M.), and Mutual Life, made presen-
attendance were Betty Martin,
awards
officer; Bernie Mckeever, manager of applied arts and business; and President Hunter, who expressed his pride in the students and faculty of the entire Management Studies and Business
students. Jay Moszyniski co-ordinator of the management studies program, chaired the ceremonies. On behalf of management studies, Moszyniski pre-
Administration programs. Representing the Association of Systems Managers were Mrs. Ruth Fraser, president of A.S.M. and Ric Woods, incoming president of A.S.M. They presented two awards
sented Kenneth Hunter,
of $250 to
president of Conestoga College, with a photo signed
Craig Howe, both third year
tations to
many
Doug
management
Halbert, and
studies students.
Sober driver a
Representing the Canadian Institute of
Management were
Peter Cadieu, president of the C.I.M., Grand Valley chapter, and Bill Harrison, vice-president.
They made two presentations of $150 to Sandra Piatkowski, a second year man-
agement studies student, and James Bongard, a third year management studies student. Representing
was
Bev
Mutual Life She made Gord Connon,
Thiel.
presentations to
a third year management studies student, and Arlene Bedudont, also a third year management studies student.
There were more than
100
students in attendance.
Ms. Bev Thiel presents award to Gord Connon, while fellow Management Studies student Arlene Bedumont, and president Kenneth Hunter look on
lifesaver Global hires students by Brian Kendall
me and
by Trevor Scurrah Lots of people are against drunk driving but the Breslau hotel has a positive well defined answer to the problem. They’ve introduced a Desig-
nated Driver Program. The program operates on a volunteer basis. One member of a group volunteers to be the designated driver, which means he cannot drink alcohol accepts for the night and responsibility for driving his friends home. In return the hotel provides him or her with soft drinks all night and waives the cover charge.
Ginny
woman
Demetriou,
spokes-
for the Breslau’s pro-
gram, said work began on it before Christmas and she became very interested and involved in it in early April. She now works between 50 and 60 hous a week on the project. “It’s a good job ... I have an understanding husband and family,” she said.
Demetriou
gram
first
advertised
saw
the pro-
in the
news-
paper and wanted to know more aout it. She contacted her old boss Roman Goffman at the Breslau hotel who encouraged her to get involved and become the program’s spokeswoman. “I was very hesitant,” Demetriou said, “but Roman was very supportive.
He seemed
to
have a
lot
that of confidence in gave me the courage to contact people like the mayors of
Kitchener and Waterloo and other prominent people for support.”
“Roman
has been very helpDemetriou said, “whenever I get discouraged I can call on him and he boosts my morale.” A lot of the time Demetriou ful,”
spends is used to collect information and statistics. “I spent an entire afternoon at the station taking to the division just in case someone throws a traffic question at me.” By the time this goes to
police
traffic
press Demetriou will have spent a day in Toronto gathering information about any programs in existence there. She will also have attended a
which as
$5,
is
we’re hoping to
make
“people who might otherwise think ‘why should I pay $5 just to see a band when I don’t even drink.’ This way they can come out, enjoy the band, have a free night out and take their friends home safely at the end of the night. Demetriou said statistics she has seen indicate that people between the ages of 25 and 35 are the most susceptible to drunk driving and that most alcohol related accidents occur between the hours of 11
p.m. and 3 a.m., when people are going home from bars and parties.
Demetriou said the response has been extremely positive,
“A
lot of
people seem to be
interested in it,” she said.
more
Guelph University and Wilfrid Laurier University have
about the drinking alcohol.
Demetriou works the door at the Breslau on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. She
both established similar pro-
responsible for greeting people and introducing the Designated Driver to the waitress, “at that point we give the Designated Driver a key chain
sity of Waterloo.
is
which identifies him and which he can keep,” she said, “We also have pins and other
them if they are repeat customers.” “By dropping the cover. things for
grams and work to introduce
is
underway
one at the Univer-
At present, Breslau is the only hotel in the area offering a Designated Driver Program but Demetriou hopes that other hotels will pick up the idea. She did say there are plans to expand the program
the area but could not provide details because plans are still very tentative. in
Inside Buying a used car B.B.
Gabor
Hunter S.
is
back
Thompson
it
attractive to people who don’t drink,” Demetriou said,
more
day-long seminar
to learn effects of
each
sometimes as much
page 2 page
3.
page
4.
poll to the
data centre at
Global.
A
number
of
journalism
students from Conestoga College, armed with clipboards and pens, were involved in an 11-hour exit poll last Thursday, May 2 on provincial election day. About 24 students worked the poll for Global Television in the Cambridge area. Jill Foster, producer of news and current affairs for Global Television, was the organizer of the event. “The idea of the exit poll
was to try and formulate which party will have the best outcome overall and in the specific area before the polls closed,” Foster said. Each student was given a clipboard, exit poll questionnaire sheets, reporting forms, and two black pens. According to Foster, a Dr. Jackson from Carleton University in Ottawa selected 15 ridings across Ontario, and within each riding he picked certain polls to be named. The students were put in pairs or groups of four and manned as many exits as they they could around each poll had to stay off school grounds and not block the sidewalk. When someone had finished voting, the student would approach him cordially and ask if he wanted to participate in the confidential poll. If he said yes, he was asked two questions: “Which party did you support and why did you support that party?” At certain times during the day, at 12: 30, 3: 30 and 6: 30, the
—
results
were phoned
in
from
There were some problems encountered when the polls were situated at old age homes. According to Craig Wilson, journalism student and co-organizer of the poll, some students were threatened with umbrellas by old women and insulted by the older men. At the near close of the exit a police officer told the students that they would have to move on because they were getting too many complaints from the people after they had voted. “As long as they were on public property and not harassing anyone, there should poll,
have no problems at all. If there was a problem with the police, the students would phone me and I would get in touch with the police departto find out why,” Foster
ment said.
Journalism students were picked to work for the exit poll because they were available at the time amd Global believed it would be good experience for them. Also the jour-
nalism students have knowledge ernment.
in politics
At one poll,
St.
and gov-
Anne’s
Church, 90 per cent of those questioned refused to respond,
and generally the exit poll did not go as well as the organizers had hoped it would. “The majority of the people appeared to be disturbed and didn’t know how to take it,” Wilson said.
Each student made
$60
working for the day.
Have a good summer
OPINION Straight talk
SPOKE Managing
News
Editor: E.G.
NDP
Lowrick
holds the wild cards
Gonczol
Editor: David
Advertising Manager: Stephen Sollazzo Staff: Suzy Highley, Steve Hodgson, Brian Kendall, Trevor Scurrah, Mark Uliana.
by Trevor Scurrah
The voters sent
a
have message to
of Ontario
clear
published and produced by he views and opinions the |ournalism-pnnt program ot Conestoga College expressed in this paper do not necessarily reflect the views ol the association or the college
Queen’s Park. They’re not
For national advertising. Spoke is a member ol Youthstream Spoke shall not be liable tor damages arising oul of errors m advertisin'; beyond the amount paid lor the space containing the enor and there shall t> no liability for non-insertion of any advertisement beyond the amount paid lew
it.
Spoke
is
I
the advertisement
Address
Spoke c/o Conestoga College.
Kitchener. Ontario,
N2G 4M4
Divorce
Telephone (Si
will
9)
299 Doon 693-3380
Valley
Drive
be easier
Couples would be able to get divorced without complicated legal wrangles after living separately for one year under legislation introduced by Justice Minister John Crosbie
Wednesday, May 1, 1985. Marriage partners claiming they suffered mental or physical cruelty or that their spouse engaged in adultery could, as in the current law, file for immediate divorce. Crosbie also introduced companion legislation which would allow for the release of information to help trace the whereabouts of the more than 60 per cent of spouses who now default on court-ordered maintenance payments. The bill would also permit garnisheeing of certain federal payments, such as income tax refunds and unemployment insurance, to help cover support payments. This legislation has been long overdue and we can only hope that this bill receives the speedy approval in the House of Commons that it deserves. This bill has been denounced by the Roman Catholic church, but then again, it denounces just about every bill that can make a person’s life easier.
pleased and they expect something
to
The party
government
be done about that forms the will have to
make compromises. They will have to appease the New Democrats, who hold the balance of power. Likewise the NDP will have to make compromises, they would surely bear the blame and the brunt of voter anger if there is an early election. Frank Miller will have to take the lessons of the two Davis minority governments in the mid-1970s very serious-
The lesson of the shortlived Clark government, at the federal level in 1979-80, has to be considered as well. In the fall of 1975 the Davis ly.
conservatives were reduced to 51 seats.
The New Demo-
crats had 38, under Stephen Lewis and the Liberals had 36,
under Robert Nixon.
In November, only two months after the election, the government faced its first
non-confidence motion. The Liberals wisely sided with the Tories and avoided another election.
A month later it was New Democrats who
Lewis’s
saved the Davis government and the Ontario public from another costly campaign. The arguing continued and in April 1977 the Liberal and the New Democrats defeated the government on a rent control bill.
In June of that year the electorate returned the Conservatives with 58 seats, still a minority. The message was
heard at Queen’s Park. The
government lasted four years.
During the more than five years of Davis minority rule the government was decidedresponsive to the voters needs. Davis stopped construction at Pcikering, cancelled property tax reforms, stopped hospital closings, slowed the growth of regional ly
governments, and avoided changing the rent control his government had imposed. At the federal level Joe Clark minority Conservative government fell at the hands
Bob Rae’s non-confidence motion. Clark mistake was in thinking he could govern as though he had a majority.
of
The message the voters have sent to the three leaders is clear. We’re watching you so you’d better make it work.
The Conservatives dual
a
threat.
will face
First
government could
their
they reaching agreements. Second, the other party is capable of forming a government without having to hold another election, provided they can get the support of the New
are
incapable
fall if
of
Democrats. Bob Rae, likewise
will
have
exercise the balance of power with extreme caution. Insistence on the introduction of left wing legislation could lead to a rift that could cause the government to fall. The electorate has a record of being unkind to the party responsible for causing an to
election.
Minority governments can be made to work but it takes co-operation on the part of all those involved.
Gentlemen go
to
work!
Buying a used car can be easy Legalize prostitution by Stephen Sollazzo It’s
the oldest profession
and possibly the oldest debate.
They’re finally talking about legalizing prostitution. Don’t you think it’s about time? By legalizing prostitution the government can remove the criminal element, the pimps, from the trade. They can require the men and women of the night to register and carry licences, thus obtaining control over the industry and making it safer for both the professional and the client. These licences could be distributed quarterly on the condition that the licensee pass a physical checkup. The trade could be restricted to certain areas of a city or town, thus getting the trade off the streets. Finally, registered prostitutes would have to pay income tax, just like the rest of us. They shouldn’t mind too much since the government’s 25 per cent or so is considerably less than what most
pimps take. Benefits for the clients, benefits for the prostitutes, benefits for society at large. In fact the only people that get hurt are the criminal element, the pimps. They’re cut out entirely. Doesn’t it just make sense?
At some point in your life you will buy a used car as a means for cheap transportation.
Usually this means a
lot of
pushy used dealers, and a fear that someone will sell you a lemon you just can’t afford.
By
following the advice of the Automobile Protection Association, the chances of being
ripped off are minimal and if it does happen then they can counsel you on your legal rights.
the APA said that with a limited budget students have to gear their
A spokesman from
thoughts to an inexpensive used car that will not cost
them
a lot of
money
to
main-
tain.
Have a good summer Summer
is
here again and
college to wish a good will leave behind.
it is
summer
time for the people at the who they
to their friends
will leave the college this summer for some behind to finish their courses or teach the
Not everyone will
stay
classes.
And those who are leaving might be going back to their homes for a vacation or going to find a summer job and possibly they have graduated and have started to work in their chosen profession.
Those who are not returning will always remember the good old days with the teachers’ strike, the pubs and the carnivals held throughout the school year. And those who are returning will be looking forward to the pubs, and other activities that the college offers. But to all the people who were at the college this year the
members of SPOKE newspaper would like to thank you for your support and wish everyone a good summer.
“The first thing is to never sign anything. Some salesmen will offer you the world to purchase the car but once you sign you are obligated to the contract,” she explained.
“A salesman might say to you that you have to sign the form before he can put your offer in, but that isn’t so.”
She explained how some dealers tamper with odometres and role back the mileage, or they add heavy oil to the engine to eliminate the noise of the enginge knocking. If the buyer suspects any kind of tampering with the car he should walk away from the dealer.
“A is
lot of people say the car reliable and it turns out to be
a lemon. If this does happen the buyer has legal rights if it was a private deal or from a
used car
lot.”
“The best way that the car
lemon is mechanic
to
guarantee
not going to be a a to take it to to have the car is
thoroughly checked. Even
if
you have him change the oil it is better and cheaper in the long run to guarantee the reliability of the car,” she ex-
plained.
Other ways of checking the car are; - using a magnet, run it along the front fenders, bottom of the doors, and rear fenders. This ensures that the car does not have a serious rust problem that was covered up. - beware of new tires on the car. The owner or dealer could be trying to cover up a serious front end problem. - look through the newspaper at the same type of cars you are interested in. This will give you an idea of what to look for and the price you should pay.
always have another person with you to act as a witness. If the seller tries to back out of a deal or a statement this would help greatly if you did have to take the seller to court. - don’t accept driver abuse as an excuse for not repairing the car. Many dealers try this excuse but the dealer is obligated as long as the warranty
-
exists
and sometimes beyond
the warranty. don’t accept
the original price. Many cars are overpriced and the buyer could
knock three
to four
hundred
dollars off the price of the car. - don’t sign false tax receipts. If you had to go to court against the seller, it would ruin
your
credibility.
Even by
following all these possible for the buyer to get ripped off. But numerous court settlements have shown that the buyer does have legal recourse. One book that is endorsed by the APA is called Lemon Aid which explains to the reader in simple language the rights of the buyer as well as the best and worst vehicles to buy. It is highly recommended for anyone who is thinking of buying a new or used car. The public can also join APA which helps counsel the person points
it is still
in his legal rights, listing
good
or bad automobiles and recommends what type of car to purchase. “This is good for stqdents becaue we have a lawyer on hand to counsel them in their legal rights,” she said.
“We also list for them the preferential garages and mechanics which helps the student who is in a new city going to school. It keeps them from going to fly by night repair men.” The cost is
of joining the APA $25 per year, and any one
wishing more information can call or write to:
Automobile Protection Association 100 Granby St. Toronto, Ont. M5B 1J1
Spoke, Monday May 13, 1985.
Cambridgestudentstopay When
paid parking
is inevit-
ably implemented at the monthly board of governors meeting May 21, the big losers will be students from Cambridge. These students will have no other option than to bring their cars and pay for parking. The City of Cambridge does not provide busing to Doon. The licence for old Blair Road route which would service Doon belongs to Canada Coach of Hamilton. Canada Coach in turn has chosen not to operate this route be-
cause
it
proved
has
be
to
unprofitable in the past. H. Brons, a spokesman for Canada Coach said that Canada Coach operated a route to
Doon
10 years
ago and
it
was
discontinued because
it
deemed unprofitable. However Brons said
may
was there
be hope for a route
in the
fall.
“I will sit down with management and see if the service is feasible.” He added there was a “chance” the service
may be reintroduced. Brons put forward $1.50 as a Cambridge to Doon fare. Conestoga
oficials
have been
pressing the City of Cambridge for the service. A souce within the college administration who wishes to remain anonymous speculated the City of Cambridge uses Canada Coach to get out of serving
Doon.
However
a
Cambridge
tran-
sit official
said the decision
Transportation Commission decides which transit systems serve which routes. It could also be a “politically sensitive” move on behalf of city council to pay for busing to Doon. Doon is out of the city, and it does not pay taxes to Cambridge. Stockford said
some money from Conestoga offset
“could be a this aspect of the
costs
solution” to
problem.
Cambridge is in the process of reviewing its whole transit
by Mark Uliana Professional wrestling
“By being an amateur, you
by Stephen Hodgson B.B. Gabor-the man who brought you songs such as Metropolitan Life, N’yet N’yet Soviet, Moscow Drug Club, Jealous Girl and Simulated Groove, is on the comeback trail after a two year hiatus
can be sure that you’re still loving it. I love music and I don’t want to treat it as a profession or a job because to do so would be to cheapen myself and to cheapen the art
form.
when
I I
keep making music
feel like
making music.
from the Canadian music
I’m not paid
scene.
to feel.”
During an interview, Gabor explained his absence from the music industry.
Gabor just finished his new album for a private production company owned by Todd Rundgren who has signed Gabor for the next five years.
“I wasn’t writing. I wasn’t interested in being part of the hit making machinery. I’m not interested in that. I want to be a musician. I don’t want to be a rock star,” he said. He added he’s been writing
songs and playing live. He considers himself an amateur in music and wants to
remain an amateur.
to think,
I’m paid
at Maple Leaf Gardens Brantford Civic Centre.
Here
“I’m very, very pleased with the album. Musically it was fun. We did it very fast, 10 days. Certainly the fastest project I’ve ever been involved in,” he said.
When asked if any studio musicians played on the album, he said, “Any musician
tember.
combined weight
1.
“To
do so, I would be confusing my role with that of a marketing man. If I was making a concerted effort towards the Top 40, I would feel like I was being dishonest towards myself,” he said. to
isn’t real-
him. “Money
Picture a speeding car full of bowling balls unleashing its load, a near three-hundred member police force foot chase down a street, love in an
is
a lubricant. Money is something that we all have to have to pay the rent or to feed
ourselves or whatever. I like money, but you won’t catch me saying that I love money ... I do believe that if you’re being honest with your public and being honest with yourself, the money follows. If you go after the money as your main objective, the music suffers.”
anti-gravity chamber, a traffic and a sexy judge who
cop.
enjoy
S&M
together
These are a few of the laughs you may get when you view this movie and depending on your sense of humour the laughs won’t break any speed barriers unless you haven’t
comedy in some time. Moving Violations is essentially a run-of-the-mill comedy
seen a
based on the successful run of
Police Academy and Beverly Hills Cop, but coming no where close to these marks of come-
commissioner’s. The two cops get assigned to teach traffic school with a bunch of weird
dy.
traffic violaters.
Two
cops (male and
female) are out looking for their quota of ‘moving violations’. They come across one guy (Don Murray, brother of Bill Murray) driving while playing the harmonica. They issue him a fine and he drives off. The guy in the car becomes one of the main characters.
These two irate cops who hate his attitude, meet him again at their hang-out and smash up the car that he is standing near. It’s not his car and turns out to be the police
Channel 5 by Brian Kendall
traffic
sometimes the
If
you
are
a
movie
fan,
especially a fan of vintage golden classics or just good old
black and white nostalgic flicks, then you should know about channel
5 at night.
plot
-
but never
Some weeks you can
switch three movies to a certain star, director, producer or theme.
on and devoted
view
You’ll definitely come James Cagney in gangster week blowing smoke from the end of his tommy-gun as he grins sadistically. The perfect across
Every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday at 11:55 or 12:55 channel 5 shows an old classic or nostalgic movie from the 1930s or 1940s with host Ben Gordon.
Gordon, himself a movie opens the show sitting in front of a rack full of movie film canisters in a comfortable
buff,
looking chair. He introduces the movie and tells a little about the director, producer, where the film was made, the leading actor and actress and
The male cop sides with a kinky female, judge (Sally Kellerman,) to make sure the class fails and the female cop becomes jealous when she finds out her partner is having sadistic relations with her. From here on you have the plans to unfoil the plans of the
judge and the cop. The movie is supposed to be clocked at 55 laughs per min ute. It will be lucky if it makes that boast in its entire length. a I suggest the movie is moving violation to the world of film.
airs vintage films
the ending.
hood.
Movie idol Humphrey Bogart will also make an appearance as either a criminal or a cool, suave man of the world smoking a cigarette under a ceiling fan and never smiling. And you’ll get to indulge in some swashbuckling adventures with none other than Errol Flynn, pirateer extraodinaire of the high seas.
There are also other nostalfeatured certain weeks such as Edward G. Robinson, George Brent, Tyrone Power, John Barrymore and others. gic
And
of course it wouldn’t be without flicks starring Marlene Dietrich, Jean Harlow, Ann Sheridan, Joan Blondell, Ava Gardner as well as other beauties of the silver screen. Especially now since sum-
right
mer
is
have
to
early
coming and you don’t worry about getting up for
morning,
college
you can
whom
I
feel
Toronto,
or at
the
are the top wrestlers
business today:
ROAD WARRIOR: Hawk of
and Animal, who have a
more than
AWA
and strength with hideously painted faces, wild haircuts, and lots of leather. This dynamic duo has been known to break arms once in a while, just as Buzz Sawyer found out when he got too cocky. 2. HOGAN: Hogan, the awesome 6-foot 8-inch, 325-pound beach boy of Venice Beach, California, is heavyweight champion. He has become currently the the tenth champion in the WWF’s 20-year history. He defeated the Iron Sheik in less than eight minutes at size
that found himself in the studio was a studio musician.’ Gabor said he’s not shooting deliberately for the Top 40.
important
is
in
560 pounds, are currently tag-team champions. They come from an infamous motorcycle gang in Chicago, and have a unique brand of wrestling that combines the disparate elements of
Moving Violations a misdemeanor by Brian Kendall
a brief look at
in the
Gabor said money
rapidly becoming the most
either
A report is due July 1 serious discussion will begin at city hall in Sep-
ly
is
popular sport in North America. Wrestling fans in this area can watch the sport on TV up to 10 times on weekends, and have the opportunity to see it live about four times a month,
and
system.
new album
finishes
Seat
Professional wrestling rising in popularity
the
Gabor
Row
is
out of the city’s hands. Gary Stockford said the Highway
to
Front
3
the
next
sit
and
indulge in some great, classic black & white flicks with the old film stars. Taking the words right out of
host Gordon’s mouth, ‘sit back and let’s enjoy tonights movie starring, ...’
HULK
WWF
Madison Square Gardens in New York on January 24, 1984, and has successfully defended his title ever since. 3. ANDRE THE GIANT: The Giant by far is the biggest attraction at any arena throughout the United States and Canada. When the Giant is on the wrestling card* promoters can be sure that the arena will be a sell-out. The 7-foot 5-inch, 497-pound giant is on the
12
road almost
11 out of
months a year, and that has quite possibly cost him
a
championship. His schedule demands that he be constantly on the move, so this does not allow the Giant to keep up his regional ranking. Andre has never lost a match. 4. HARLEY RACE: Race, from Kansas City, Missouri, is the only wrestler ever to win the NWA world title on seven different occasions. After stealing the title from Ric Flair on June 10, 1983, in St. Louis, Race defended his crown against the likes of the Dewey Robertson, two-time champ Dusty Rhodes, Florida champion Scott McGhee, and Barry Windham. Race lost his title for the seventh time on Thanksgiving 1983 in Greensboro, North Carolina to Flair at the 25-minute mark in a steel cage match. Flair began his wrestling career in 5. RIC FLAIR: Minnesota in 1972. On September 17, 1981, he defeated Dusty Rhodes in Kansas City and became the NWA world champion. He lost the title two years later to Race, but won it back again from Race just a few months later. His second reign as champion came to an end on May 6, 1984, when he was defeated by Kerry Von Frich in Texas Stadium. Flair won the title for a third time on May 24, when he defeated Von Frich in Toyko, Japan. 6. NICK BOCKWINKEL: Bockwinkel has won the AWA title three times. He successfully defended his first title for five years. He won his first belt back in 1975, and successfully defended it up until July of 1980, when he was defeated by Verne Gagne. He regained the title for a second time in May of 1981, when Gagne retired. He lost the belt once again to European champion Otto Wanz on August 27, 1982 in St. Paul, Minnesota. Bockwinkel regained the title just a few months later, defeating Wanz, but lost it once again on February 23, 1984 to Japanese champion “Jumbo” Tsuruta. Bockwinkel has tried numerous times to win the title for a fourth time but has been unsuccessful in his quest to dethrone the current AWA champion Rick Martel from Canada. 7. KAMALA: This monstrous man from Uganda weighs in at 402 pounds of sheer terror. Kamala is one of the most unusual, if not the most frightening man, in wrestling today. He is big, black, and paints his bald head in an African design. He wears an African warrior-type skirt that barely covers his bulging blubber. All in all, he resembles a very successful cannibal. He has a habit of diving on his opponents from the ring posts, squashing the unsuspecting competitors into submission. 8. TITO SANTANA: In his six plus years of wrestling, this talented young grappler from Mexico has managed to International title, the West Texas tag-team win the championship (with good friend Ted Di Biase) and the tag-team championship (with Ivan Putski). Santana played two years of professional football prior to wrestling. One year with the Kansas City Chiefs of the NFL, and one with the BC Lions of the CFL. 9- RODDY PIPER: Piper is the most hated wrestler amongst wrestling fans. Born in Glasgow, Scotland and raised in Australia, Piper began wrestling at the age of six. At 16, he began his professional wrestling career in Winnipeg, Canada, and was the youngest professional wrestler ever to wrestle there. At age 20, he became the lightweight champion of the world, again the youngest wrestler ever to achieve that distinction.
WWF
WWF
'
Spoke, Monday May 13, 1985.
4
Thompson gave us Gonzo journalism by E.G. Lowrick The new journalism as a nonfiction form with the emotional impact usually found only in novels and short has been carried to an idiosyncratic extreme, beyond any pretense of objectivity, by Hunter S. Thompson, the maddog prince of Gonzo journalstories,
ism.
Tom
Wolfe or Gay Talese,” Thompson once explained, “I almost never try to “Unlike
reconstruct a story
;
...
Gonzo
is
a word I picked up because I liked the sound of it which is not to say there isn’t a basic difference between the kind of writing I do and the Wolfe/Talese style. They tend to go back and recreate stories that have already happened, while I get right in the middle of whatever I’m writing about
just
personally
as possible.”
-
Thompson
involved
as
deadline crisis when he was writing a story on the 1970 Kentucky Derby for Scanlan’s
magazine entitled The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent And Depraved.
“I’d blown
my mind,
the force.
A commanding
"Gonzo
is
just
a word
picked up because
I
liked the
sound
of-
I
of it.”
... sometimes seem to rub off on the other airmen.” After his discharge, Thompson took, and was soon fired from, a writing job with the
and he wrote for a bowling magazine in Puerto Rico until
printer. I was sure it was the last article I was ever going to do for anybody. Then when it came out, there were massive
it
like the
New York Times?” He
also said that his early experience in sportswriting, where “you get a tremendous leeway with the usage of words,” was a natural preparation for
Thompson’s
first
book,
Hell’s Angels (1966), was about the notorious motorcycle gang. It was fairly conventional in comparison with his comic stream-of-consciousness, socio-political writing in Fear and Loathing
and Fear
Las Vegas (1972) and Loathing On the Cam-
in
paign
Trail
’72
(1973).
The
central character in those wild satires was “Dr. Thompson,” a snarling drug-and-alcoholcrazed refugee from the failed psychedelic dream of the 1960s
hurling creative aggresive censure at the greed and corruption of the society in which he found himself in the 1970s.
After he quit his position as national affairs editor of Rolling Stone magazine (where most of his Gonzo writing first
appeared) in 1976, little was heard from the “doctor”, and in an author’s note prefacing The Great Shark Hunt (1979), he seemed to imply that he was looking for another literary persona. Thompson did find another literary persona in The Curse of Lono (1981). Raoaul Duke, Mr. Thompson’s pseudonym in Fear and Loathing, is absent from Lono, leaving the real Hunter S. Thompson to act and account for himself.
Whatever
his future holds, critics believe that Thompson has already established a lasting place for
many
failed. In 1960,
he travelled
across country to California, finished a never-published novel while living in Big Sur, and investigated the North Beach beatnik scene in San Francisco. From there he went to South
“really jerked
it,
around.” While covering the Democratic Convention in Chicago in August 1968 as a straight reporter, he was caught in the clash of police with anti-Vitetnam war demonstrators, saw “innocent people beaten senseless,” and was himself struck with a billy club. He came away convinced that he would get into politics. Thus radicalized, he became the driving force in the “freak politics” movement in Aspen, Colorado. Thompson persuaded Joe Edwards, a lawyer and fellow “freak,” to run for mayor of Aspen on an anti-
He
promised
to tear up the replant them with grass, and scare off the streets,
“greedheads” by renaming Aspen “Fat City.” Edwards lost by six votes, and Thompson, while losing overall, won three of the six major precincts in the county. It was to their mutual benefit that Thompson and Rolling
Stone magazine found each other in 1970. “Rolling Stone was the first place I had been where I could write exactly what I felt,” Thompson has said. Rolling
America, where travelled for two years from 1961 to 1963, and had his first success as a
Stone, for
journalist, sending dispatches to the now-defunct weekly National Observer. He quit
mat, and Thompson’s open writing contributed more to that effort than any other tactic tried by the magazine’s
writing for the Observer when it refused to let him cover the
“Free Speech” movement
at
the University of Southern Ca-
Gonzo journalism.
he put
deputies eat mescaline.”
notebook and numbering them and sending them to the
calling it a ‘great breakthrough in journalism.” And I thought ... if I can write like this and get away with it, why should I keep trying to write
Not long after his experience with the Angels, Thompson’s political consciousness was, as
military dress and authority
my
of letters, phone congratulations, people
son’s.
ficer reported that “his flair for invention and imagination and rebellious disregard for
Middletown Record and a traineeship at Time magazine,
calls,
wrote that there is in print no more “accurate a description or ... plausible an analysis” of the Hell’s Angels than Thomp-
development platform. In a subsequent election Thompson himself ran for sheriff on the platform that “I would let the
couldn’t work. So I finally just started jerking pages out of
numbers
{
newspaper in Florida. In 1958, two years before his enlistment term was up, he was honorably discharged from
traces the gene-
sis of the Gonzo style to one specific desperate situation, a
j
himself in American literature on the strength alone of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, which some regard as the funniest American prose work in recent memory. Hunter Stockton Thompson was born in Louisville, Kentucky, on July 18, 1939, the son of Jack R. Thompson, an insurance agent and Virginia (Ray). After attending public schools in Louisville, he joined the U.S. Air Force, in which he did sports writing for a base
lifornia.
Settling
in
San Francisco,
Thompson resumed
his efforts
at fiction while earning a bare living driving a cab, doing odd
jobs, and turning out an occasional article. Following the publication of an article on the Hell’s Angels by him in the Nation, in May 1965, his mailbox piled up with book offers, and he accepted the one that
came from Random House. Thompson was the first reporter to meet with the Hell’s Angels on their own turf instead of relying on police
information. He rode with them for a year - an experience that ended in his being badly “stomped” - in order to produce Hell’s Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga. While critical of the authorities and the media for exaggerating, he detailed their actual offenses and defined the real threat they represent. Thompson saw the Angels as the “first wave of a future that nothing in our history has prepared us to cope with,” the avantgarde of a smoldering
horde of uprooted unemployables.
Their lack of education has not only rendered them completely useless in a highly technical economy, but it has also given them the leisure to cultivate a powerful resentment ... and to translate it into a destructive cult.” The re-
viewer for Choice (June 1977)
its part, was new course away from
to set a its
trying
original rock
roll
‘n’
for-
wide-
publisher, Jan Wenner. first article, The Battle of Aspen: Freak Power in the Rockies, was followed by Strange Rumblings in Aztlan and the two-part Fear and
Thompson’s
Las Vegas, which became the book of the same name. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the Amerjican Loathing
in
Dream (Random House,
1971)
began as a double assignment, to cover a motorcycle race and a national drug enforcement convention in Las Vegas. In executing the assignment, Thompson largely ignored both events to focus on his trip to the
Nevada gambling
capi-
'
'Writing about would paralyze
politics
my
brain if couldn’t a slash of wierd I
have
humor now and then.” tal
and
his stay there. In that
nightmarish odyssey, he and his travelling companion, Oscar Zeta Acosta, (an Hawaiian-shirted Samoan lawyer), were “bent and twisted on alcohol and assorted chem-
from high-power blotter acid to uppers, downers, cocaine, ... and amyl nitrate.” They were depicted in a continual feverish flight from the consequences of driving inicals
fractions,
wrecked rent-a-
cars, unpaid hotel bills, and their own fits of paranoia. “I lost all track of the ratio between what was true and what was not,” Thompsn said later. “We are wired into a
survival trip,” Thompson once “ ‘Consciousness expansaid, sion’ went out with President
Johnson and
worth noting,
it is
historically, that came in with Nixon. It
downers
was Thompson who
per-
to make into political re-
suaded Jann Wenner
done by Thompson over the last 16 years. In the athor’s note, it is signed Hunter S.
Thompson #1, R.I.P., December 23, 1977. He states, “I have already lived and finished the life I planned to live (13 years more in fact) - and everything from now on will be a New Life, a different thing, a gig that ends tonight and starts tomorrow morning.
The misadventures
of
the venture portage. In covering the 1972
Thompson and his old friend and attorney, Oscar Zeta
presidential campaign, Thompson, true to Gonzo
Acosta, were the inspiration for the motion picture Where the Buffalo Roam (Universa, 1980) on which Thompson served as executive consultant and screenplay collaborator.
form, was in a frantic rush to meet deadlines and never far
we
In the film, set in the heyday of the counterculture in the late 1960s, Thompson was represented in his “Doctor” per-
so
Bill
No
other reporter reveals how much
have
and does
to fear
loathe, yet
it
a nervous
breakdown.
“Writing about politics would paralyze my brain if I couldn’t have a slash of weird humor now and then,” said Thompson. In his coverage he invented such stories as one about John Chancellor mischievously doctoring Thompson’s drink with a “heavy hit of black acid” and another aout a Brazilian doctor flying in with “an emergency packet of (the exotic drug) Ibogaine” for Edmund Muskie. The lunacy aside, Thompson’s reporting was of a quali-
prompt Dan Rather to “wonder where I’d been as a journalist.’’ Displaying a shrewd investigative and analytical ability, Thompson was ty to
the first to predict McGovern’s capture of the Democratic nomination, and he uncovered plans for funneling
mob money
into
the
Humphrey campaign.
This
earned Thompson great
re-
spect in the liberal political
community. His work trying to organize a Washington office for Rolling Stone cut into his writing output, and when he did apply himself to the typwriter again, he hit a writer’s block. “It’s a terrible responsibility to have to keep topping yourself when you have a reputation for being the nation’s leading looney,” said Thompson. His 1973 article Fear and Loathing at the Superbowl had the old Gonzo touch, as did his articles on Watergate for Rolling Stone, but such instances became increasingly rare. He contracted malaria in Zaire when he went there to cover the
Ali/Foreman
fight.
He
failed
attend the fight and produced no story at all. After returning to the United States, he buried himself in research for a novel until the summer of 1976, when he came forth with his last Rolling Stone article, a political piece favorable to to
Jimmy
Carter. Thompson, who had been feuding on and Wenner all off with Jann along, became furious when Wenner ran as the cover line for the article, “An Endorsement, with Fear and Loath-
He
Rolling Stone, apparently for good. ing.”
Murray
(of
Saturday
Night Live fame). Acosta became Karl Lazio, who was
hilariously.
from
sona and was portrayed by
left
The Greart Shark Hunt (Summit Books, 1979) brought together a collection of works
portrayed by Peter Boyle (who played Frankenstein’s monster in the film Young Frankenstein). The movie was generally panned by critics and film-goers alike for
its
“sophmoric slapstick” and “relentless mayhem.” One could only appreciate,
let
alone understand, the film if they had some general background on the “Doctor.” In
The Curse
Thompson
of
Lono
(1981),
assigned to cover a race (the Honolulu marathon) in a popular America resort spot, and once again he winds up writing not just about the race but also the locale and the times and anything else he encounters during his stay is
there.
Hunter
S.
Thompson
a
is
lean but sturdy six feet, three inches tall. His characteristic attire includes tennis shoes, shorts or jeans, a loud, untucked shirt, and dark aviator glasses. tributes
He humorously
at-
loss of hair to overindulgence in alcohol and
his
other mind-altering substances. He and Sandra, who were married on May 19, 1963, have a son named Juan. Thompson, who has several pets including a
myna
bird,
some peacocks and Doberman pinschers, lives on a 100-acre ranch in Woody Creek, Colorado, a few miles from Aspen. On a hillside near his home, he
has mounted a series of gongs as a shooting gallery for him and his .44 Magnum. In writing, he usually dictates his first draft into a tape recorder and does the final draft on a typewriter. Under the name “Raoul Duke” the writer is a
running character in Garry Trudeau’s comic strip, Doonesbury. In Gonzo journalism,
Raoul Duke
is the alter ego of Dr. Thompson, whose doctorate is self-bestowed.
Thompson captures the crazy, hypocritical, and worthwhile aspects of American society with more razorsharp insight than anyone writing today. He is always fresh, irreverent, original and on-the-edge. He hurls himself head-first into each assignment and situation and comes back with a story only he could
He aims
for the naked the nation’s jugular vein. No other report-
write. truth
and
hits
er reveals how much we have to fear and loathe, yet does it so hilariously.